Leading researchers have warned family doctors are wasting time on the 'worried well' instead of treating people who are actually sick (file picture)

NHS health checks offered to the over-40s are useless, causing needless worry and diverting resources from sick patients, it was claimed yesterday.

But health ministers insisted that the flagship £300million-a-year screening programme could save up to 650 lives each year and prevent 1,600 heart attacks and strokes by spotting warning signs early.

Launched in 2009 for people aged 40 to 74, it has led to 1.3million receiving a health ‘MoT’ over the last year.

It is now to be rolled out across England after being tested in a variety of areas.

But Danish researchers claim the Health Check Programme operates in ‘direct conflict with the best available evidence’ and is likely to lead to patients taking drugs they do not need.

Researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Centre analysed 14 international trials involving 183,000 people receiving routine checks but found none of them cut deaths, kept people out of hospital or prevented disability.

As a result of the study, the Danish Government has reversed its plan for regular checks. And following concerns, a review of the NHS breast screening programme last year concluded that for every life saved by screening, four women underwent unnecessary surgery.

The latest study comes as the Government steps up its plan to make the NHS less of a sickness service and more pro-active.

But psychiatrists have already labelled plans to screen for early dementia among older people visiting their GPs for other reasons ‘a disaster in slow motion’ because patients without symptoms could be wrongly diagnosed.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

While GPs have backed this dementia scheme, Dr Clare Gerada, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said she was concerned about mass health screening.

‘Through mass screening of untargeted populations, we are identifying risk factors, not diseases, and it is inevitable that we will identify people who might have “abnormalities”,’ she said.

‘These will usually disappear or turn out to be irrelevant, but we run the risk of putting people on unnecessary medication or worrying them unduly.’

Researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Centre say the Health Check programme 'operates in direct conflict with the best available evidence' and is likely to lead to patients taking drugs they do not need (file picture)

Health Minister Norman Lamb said the screening programme tackled
the shocking variation in health outcomes across the country, and was
shifting the system from dealing only with the effects of illness to
also promoting wellness.

‘We could save 650 lives a year, prevent 1,600
heart attacks and strokes, and prevent over 4,000 new cases of diabetes
if there was full take-up,’ he said.

‘Early research findings and
experience are positive that NHS Health Checks are reaching those most
in need and helping to reduce their risk of ill health.’

Clare Gerada, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, backed the centre's calls to end routine checks, saying they 'devalued medicine'

She said: ‘Far from being useless, there is good
evidence that, if properly implemented, it could prevent thousands of
cases of Type 2 diabetes a year, as well as having a positive impact for
heart disease, kidney disease and stroke.

‘And while the £300million
it costs to run might sound like a lot of money, diabetes and other
chronic conditions are expensive to treat.

‘This means that once you
factor in the savings in healthcare costs, the NHS Health Check is
actually expected to save the NHS about £132million per year.’

Although
many patients like the ‘insurance’ value of a health check, figures
last month showed that less than half of those invited for one (49 per
cent) attended the appointment. The aim is 70 to 75 per cent.

Dr Paul
Cosford, medical director at Public Health England, said: ‘We know
there is a huge burden of disease associated with conditions such as
heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease.

‘Many of these
long-term conditions can be avoided through modifications in people’s
behaviour and lifestyles, and this is what the NHS Health Check
programme aims to do.’